


The Fourth Closet: Rewritten

by tiredfnaftheorist



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-01-29 23:10:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21418213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredfnaftheorist/pseuds/tiredfnaftheorist
Summary: My autism will physically not let me stand by and watch TFC's train wreck of an ending. This is not directed as hate to Scott or Kira in any way. While a clusterfuck it may be, The Fourth Closet (and FNaF in general) is a clusterfuck I hold dear to me. So, to honor my love for it, I'm going to rewrite the whole book because I'm a petty bitch. Let's see what happens boyos, its as much a mystery to you as it is to me.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Scott Cawthon](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Scott+Cawthon).

_THUD. Jessica stifled a scream as the bolted door trembled from some outside force. John flinched back from it, nearly tripping over himself in surprise. She reached out an arm to steady him, but it seemed to help her more than him. _

_“Marla?” Jessica said into the walkie talkie on her left that was propped against the wall of monitors. “Marla that’s you out there right?” She hated how much her voice trembled. _

_THUD. The noise came again, and this time she could see a dent in the door where it must have been struck. “What is that, a sledgehammer?” John whispered, and she nearly jumped. She’d forgotten she was gripping his arm. _

_THUD. THUD. THUD. Dents appeared on the surface of the door, each blow against it making the hinges squeak and her faith in the seemingly impenetrable metal door deflated. _

_That definitely isn’t Marla, she thought to herself with a shudder, desperately tightening her grip on John. She needed the reminder that someone else was here, someone besides herself and her frantic beating heart. As the thuds and clangs continued relentlessly, she could feel that same desperation from John as they clung to each other, paralyzed. She could feel the wood and wires of the control board poking her in the back as she pressed up against it. _

_THUD. With a small clink as it hit the floor, part of one the door hinges gave out, the screw rolling to a stop at Jessica’s foot. There was a crack there now, not big enough for something to get in yet, but the sight of it caused her to let out a small whimper and tighten her already iron grip on John’s arm and shirt. She looked at him in a panic, searching for the same frantic and cornered look in his eyes she was sure she had. But his gaze was frozen, fixed on something at the door with a mixture of horror and bizarre wonder. She followed his gaze, until she could see it, a pair of lifeless blue eyes gazing at them, patient and curious. Jessica stared into the eyes, and she could’ve sworn she heard laughter as the rhythmic banging and thuds continued, becoming louder and louder until the dead bolt cracked in half. _

_Freddy’s hand started to creep through the crack at the door and she heard a scream echo throughout the pizzeria, but she didn’t know if it was hers._

_ Suddenly, the screams became louder, and the room around her was no longer the small monitor room tucked away behind the curtains at Freddys. The scenery had melted into a large rocky cavern, the whole foundation shaking, big and small pieces of rubble pelting her from all sides. _

_Someone was screaming her name, and she turned back from the exit, from safety, following the sound of their voice. _

_Charlie. _

_“JOHN! CHARLIE!” She yelled, racing towards them as she slipped through the gap in the wall, her cry deafened by the sound of the building crashing down around them. _ _Clay followed her, trying to fit through the narrow passageway leading back down to the underground pizzeria._

_ She bolted straight to Charlie’s side, her stomach filling with dread as she saw the animatronic slowly pulling her friend inside it’s metal filled chest cavity. Frantically she pulled against the side of the plates, trying to heave Charlie out as John pulled her forwards. _

_“Wait!” Charlie yelled, as she tried to grab Jessica’s hand to no avail. “The spring locks, they’ll kill me if you touch them the wrong way.” _

_“But if we don’t get you out you’ll die anyway!” She shouted in response, her efforts doubled. _

_It was no use._ _ The animatronic’s head started to unfurl rapidly, dragging Charlie’s body farther away from her and John’s grasp, and they had to fall to their knees to keep hold of her. _

_“Don’t let go of me!” Charlie cried out, her eyes wide with panic as John tightend his grip on her hand and Jessica pried the edges of the suit, her eyes becoming wet with tears as she grabbed with all the strength and care she could muster._

_ John and Charlie were speaking but she couldn’t hear what they were saying, the tears in Jessica’s eyes starting to fall as her grip lessened and more plates snapped shut. The layers kept unfolding, until she could only see Charlie’s arm. She couldn’t pull open the chest cavity, only try to stop the layers from completely suffocating Charlie. Suddenly, a warning cry with came from within the suit, and she lurched back as one of the arms grabbed at her, the sharp claws scraping where she’d been kneeling seconds before._

_ She had to crawl back from the suit as it wildly attacked with no clear direction, when she suddenly saw Clay grab a piece of a metal beam that had been knocked loose from the wall and crash it against the animatronics arm. He lifted it again, aiming for it’s head this time. _

_“Let her go!” John screamed, and he and Jessica darted back to the suit, but the layers had merged together, there was nothing for her to grab at. “I can’t get to her!” Jessica yelled, her heart racing as she tried to grip Charlie's shaking hand. “She’s going to suffocate!” She held Charlies hand tight, trying to give her something to hold onto, someone to reassure her, to save her. Her hand was limp, but there was a pulse. _

_Clay renewed his efforts with the beam, and the head of the creature came crashing off, revealing Charlie’s face through one side of the suit, covered with cuts and bruises. Her eyes were squeezed shut. “Can we get her out through the neck?” John asked, seemingly to himself, the urgency in his voice clear._

_ The bear animatronic continued to flail its arms, but there was something weaker in it’s movements, more desperate. _

_“Clay, help!” Jessica screamed, and he dropped the beam to help pry open the plates where they had been cracked. _

_“Charlie!” She yelled frantically into the suit, squeezing Charlie’s hand gently as she held it close to her chest. Suddenly, she felt a small squeeze back. “Charlie!” She cried in relief. “John, Clay, she’s okay! Hurry! Charlie, can your hear me? It’s Jessica.” She sputtered out in one breath, holding Charlie’s hand tightly as she awaited any type of response. _

_She listened intently, and over the sounds of Clay and John grunting as they pulled at the suit she could hear a soft, “Help me,” so quiet it couldn’t have been more than a faint whisper. _

_Then a clicking noise echoed from within the suit and around the falling cavern and the metal suit convulsed and a crunching noise echoed throughout the air._

Jessica eyes snapped open with a start, bolting upright out of bed as she gasped for air.

She looked around, expecting to see the collapsed building surrounding her, and sighed in relief as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

She was in her apartment, it was only a nightmare.

She flopped back down against her pillow, and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to calm herself.

But the image of the suit, of Charlie, dripping with blood came to her unwanted.

Jessica shuddered, and sleepily dragged herself out of bed. She glanced at her alarm clock on her bedside table. It was almost five AM, there was no point in going back to bed for a couple minutes.

She made her way to the kitchen, getting out a mug as she poured water into a pan over the stove for tea.

Jessica tapped her fingers on the side of the counter impatiently as she closed her eyes again, scrubbing the images burned into her memory away as she focused on her breathing.

Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, can you give me a hand with this, Jess?” Carrie said, grunting as she struggled to carry a box in from the front of the store that was much too heavy for her.

“Lift with your knees,” Jessica advised, walking towards the short auburn haired girl and grabbing the edge of the box. “I’m trying.” Carrie huffed, struggling to keep her end of the package aloft.

Together, they managed to carry it to the back of the store.

Carrie set her end down a bit to quickly, almost crushing Jessica’s fingers. “Sorry!” She said, blushing heavily as she sat down on a nearby chair. Or maybe she was just red in the face from the effort.

“It’s fine.” Jessica replied. Ever since she had gotten the job at this department store, Carrie had been a tad bit reckless with her work.

It wasn’t really Jessica’s concern, as she had started around the same time and they had the same amount of experience, but the girl had a habit of biting off a bit more than she could chew.

“What’s in here anyway?” Jessica asked.

Carrie shrugged. “Some new pairs of heels and boots, I think. Jorden must’ve ordered a couple thousand though, or maybe they’re all made of rocks.”

“Obviously the latter. Granite shoes are all the range in New York.”

“Ah, and Hurricane only follows the latest trends.”

The two girls grinned at each other, chatting as Carrie got to work opening the box and taking out the new merchandise, and Jessica set off on her personal quest of organization as she shelved them.

“So, how’s the writing course?” Jessica asked.

“Boring. I swear, our professor is trying to punish us for some deadly sin with the amount of homework he’s assigned us. How’s archeology?”

“Fun! We’re learning about the approximate time and conditions needed to decay human flesh to the point where it leaves behind only a skeleton.”

“You have a strange definition of fun, Jess.”

It when on like that for a while, the two of them going back and forth for a few minutes. It was a fairly normal occurrence at early hours, the time before the shop officially opened and when Jessica and her co-workers just talked.

She was lucky, in a way. All of her co-workers were nice enough people, though there were none she considered close friends. Carrie ranked slightly higher on that list, which might have been due to the fact she was also in college.

“I did not get ANY sleep last night.” Carrie said as she pulled out a pair of cobalt blue heels. “I was up all night getting that stupid essay on ‘The Caste of Amontago’ done, I’m exhausted.”

“I didn’t sleep well either,” Jessica confessed, the nightmare coming back to her. “I was dreaming about… _it_ again.”

“You mean that one dream about your friend, Charlie?”

Jessica winched, then nodded. “

“Maybe it’s because of stress, or guilt. When my dog died I had nightmares for a week about him getting hit by a car. So, you saw your friend almost get crushed in a building, maybe it’s a similar thing, but it’s just a near-death experience instead? Like, guilt of what from what could’ve happened?”

  
“I suppose.” She didn’t really expect Carrie to understand.

After all, she hadn’t exactly told her friend everything about the nightmares, or the event that caused them.

The less Jessica had to remember, the better.

  
What had happened that night was a memory that haunted her, it wasn’t as simple as losing a pet. She had seen her best friend crushed to pieces, her life snuffed out like a dying flame. And then she had risen from the ashes like nothing had even happened.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jessica looked back up at Carrie, her round, freckled face and caring brown eyes filled with concern.

_Chocolate colored eyes, wet with tears, wide and scared, then completely blank. Blood dripping down her cheeks-_

“Jessica?”

  
“I’m fine.” Jessica said, forcing a smile.

  
“C’mon, let’s get back to work. Maybe if we dig deep enough we’ll find those granite heels.’” She said with a grin.

  
Carrie giggled, but Jessica saw the concern in her eyes. 

  
They finished boxing and sorting in silence.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jessica took a deep breath as she sat down in the park bench, then slowly released it as she undid her tight ponytail and combed her fingers through her dark brown hair, then reached for an actual comb in her purse.

Business had been excruciatingly slow today, and one of the few customers she had seen was a neighbor of hers, who took it upon himself to talk for ten minutes straight about how she was to loud and he had half a mind to tell the landlord, and she should be grateful he was so patient.

Jessica had simply clenched her teeth and nodded her head, not wanting to drive off a potential customer.

She sort of wished she should have told him off, there were plenty of other jobs around Hurricane. Probably some even better ones in St. George. Jessica instinctively shook her head at the thought.

The idea of spending less time in Hurricane just seemed like her abandoning the town, abandoning Charlie.

_ If you miss her, just call her_. Jessica reminded herself. Charlie was not like Michael, she was still reachable.

Yet the image of her friends still body was burned into her brain. She had seen the new scars that Charlie bore minutes after she stepped out of the car and into the diner, or at least, the bandages covering them.

The sight of them had filled her eyes with tears, and she had gently reached out a hand to touch her bandaged arm. Charlie had looked over at her, then and the bandages, registering her tears. _“It’s okay,” She had said. “They’ll heal._”

But they would leave scars, the same scars Dave had. The same scars a murderer and lunatic had. Didn’t that bother her?

“Jessica?” A voice said, and Jessica snapped back into reality.

She looked up, and saw a familiar curly redheaded face staring down at her.

“Carlton?” She asked, and broke out with a smile as she reached out for a hug. “Oh my god, I haven’t seen you in forever, you dork.”

“Dork? Jessica, I am a hard working Brooklyn man.”

“Whose majoring in theater.”

“You remembered!”

“Of course I remember, you only told me like seven times.” Jessica said with a roll of her eyes.

“Only four, actually.” Carlton said, and sat down on the bench next to her. “How’s Archeology?”

“Cheery. Nothing is more exciting then learning how fast bacteria deteriorates your skull.”

“I sincerely hope you’re kidding.”

“Relax, we haven’t gotten to the really fun stuff like mummification yet. Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“I came down to see my dad, he wanted us to celebrate Passover together since it’s only in a couple of days, and we do it every year, so ‘why break the tradition now’?” Carlton said as he sarcastically mimicked his father's deep voice.

“I thought your dad wasn’t into those traditional holidays?"

“He isn’t. Mom was, though.” Carlton muttered, and Jessica detected a hint of annoyance in his eyes, but it flickered out the moment he met her eyes again.

“Anyway, I went out to get milk,” Carlton said, tapping the plastic lid of the can as proof. “And I wanted to take a walk around before dinner to see some of the new stuff they were building downtown. I didn’t realize how much damage that storm did when I first heard about it. Honestly I just found it ironic it was a tornado and not a **hurricane**.” Carlton said with a cheesy grin, which only widened when Jessica rolled her eyes.

“How long have you been waiting to say that?”

  
“I’ve said it twice in the past hour. Dad keeps telling me to stop.”

  
“Wait, you dad-joked your dad? That’s a serious accomplishment, Carlton.”

  
“What can I say, I ooze joy and laughter.” He said with a shrug. 

  
Jessica raised an eyebrow, but smiled anyway. She then reached in for a hug.

  
“Woah, what’s that for?” He asked, returning the hug anyway.

  
“You’re the same charismatic idiot as ever is all. I just… I actually missed you. I missed hanging out with real friends like this. With everything that’s been going on this year with Charlie and school… it’s just nice to have someone like you here.”

  
They were silent for a little bit, before Jessica let go of him and sat back down at the bench, grabbing her purse.

“Hey, you wanna come over later for dinner?” He asked suddenly.

Jessica pondered it for a second, mentally projecting a schedule of her day. There were no plans she had she could recall. “Sure, I’m free.”

“Nice! See you later, Jessie!” Carlton said, shooting finger guns at her and sliding away dramatically.

Jessica chuckled a bit and shook her head, swinging her purse over her shoulder as she stood up and walked towards her car.

From behind a tree, a woman watched her leave, her bright green eyes fixed onto Jessica until she drove out of sight.


	2. Chapter Two

“Where are you?!” the man yelled as he bolted through the hallways. 

He swept from room to room at an alarming speed, yanking open doors and hastily glancing inside and over his shoulder before moving on to the next.

  
He ran through the main hallway when a glint of metal behind a box of parts caught his eye. He walked towards it briskly, carelessly tossing aside the scraps of metal and screws hastily thrown into boxes. Behind it was a door, shiny and metallic.

  
The man pulled at it, gripping at the sides and jerking it back. The door didn’t budge an inch. He ran his fingers over the surface, searching for a button or at least some sort of mechanism hidden on the surface. Nothing. Valiantly, he pulled at the door again, but it stubbornly refused to move. 

  
He groaned in annoyance, kicking the door as if that would make it cooperate. He slumped against the wall, casting his gaze down to the floor in defeat. His expression of annoyance turned to one of determination. 

  
The man grabbed one of the long pieces of metal that had fallen out of its place and onto the floor, wedging it in between the cracks as he pushed against the door, using his body weight to force it open farther. Blood dripped off his hands as he tightened his grip, slowly prying the heavy door open. 

  
With one final push, the door swung open, crashing into the side of the wall. The man barely managed to dodge it, tripping backward in surprise.   
When it hit the wall, the room echoed through the empty room like a bell. Or more accurately, an alarm. From somewhere further down the empty halls, he could hear the muffled sound of shouting.

  
The man quickly stood up and brushed himself off, still tightly clutching the piece of bloodied metal and gripping it in a way where he could swing at whatever was in the small storage room with ease. Taking a deep breath, he glanced into the closet cautiously, bringing the piece of metal high up above his head in preparation to fight whatever was hidden inside. 

Instead, his eyes widened. He dropped his arms to his sides, his makeshift weapon clattering to the floor. There, curled up on the floor and unconscious, was a girl. 

Jessica rubbed her arms as she rang the doorbell to the massive house as if it would magically dispel the goosebumps on her arms. There had been a sudden drop in temperature, the dreary April weather finally kicking in tonight in full swing after a couple of days of unbearable heat. 

  
_Hurray for Utah’s freaky weather patterns_, Jessica thought to herself. _I knew I should’ve grabbed a thicker jacket._

  
After another couple seconds, the door creaked open, and Clay Burke stood in the doorway. He looked at Jessica with surprise, like he didn't quite believe she was standing in front of him.  
“Jessica? What are you—I mean—hi, how are you?” he said. 

  
“Oh, I’m doing fine I guess. I just bumped into Carlton at the park and we just started to talk and next thing I knew he invited me over for dinner. I know it was late notice but Carton said that it was fine.. is it alright with you?” she questioned.

  
If Clay’s shocked and somewhat annoyed expression told her anything, it was that he clearly had no clue his son had invited her over in the first place. Jessica made a mental note to never let Carlton plan anything, ever. 

  
“Oh, of course! I’ve just been having a couple of… unexpected visitors tonight. Come in, you’re going to catch a cold.” 

  
Clay waved Jessica inside, and she quickly obliged. The house was, thankfully, warm and once again she found herself admiring the sort of cozy well-worn charm it had, from generations of people living in the three-story building. A part of her wondered just how many people had lived here, how many lifetimes had gone by. 

  
It reminded her of something she'd once heard about how living people made their mark on the world, even after those people were gone. Not ghosts, just bits and pieces of memories. Or maybe it was just the Victorian era style of the house that she adored.

  
“So, who else came over?” Jessica asked, as she peeled off her pastel blue and pink hoodie and hung it up on an already overflowing coat rack. Clay opened his mouth in response, but a soft voice answered before he did.

  
“I think that’d be me,” Charlie said, awkwardly laughing as she leaned against the wall in the corner of the room.

  
Jessica’s jaw dropped, but not at her friend’s surprise appearance, at what she was wearing. 

  
Charlie’s hair had grown back out, and she wore it in a long braid, tied neatly with a small purple hair tie. Her denim jean jacket covered in buttons with logos of her favorite punk and rock bands was the same as ever, but the sweater she wore with it was a dark shade of red that suited her nicely. Her skirt was the same color and had some sort of poofy material that made it pop. 

  
“Charlie!” Jessica squealed and tackled her with a hug. “Oh my god, you look adorable! I haven’t seen you in months, how are you?”

  
Charlie smiled and returned her hug. “I’m doing just fine Jessica, and thanks. I mean, if I’m crashing a party I should dress my best right? By the way, I'm really sorry about that, Clay. I really should’ve called.”

  
Jessica turned around to see Clay eyeing Charlie strangely, his arms crossed over his chest. Apparently Charlie’s apology had not been very effective. 

  
“How’d you know we were having dinner?” Clay asked casually.

  
It was a simple enough question, but he looked Charlie right in the eyes like he was studying her expression. Charlie blushed deeply and looked at the ground.

  
“Not that we aren’t thrilled to see you,” he added hastily. 

  
Jessica looked back and forth between the two of them. There was an odd tension in the air, one she hadn’t sensed before.   
_Why **is** she here? _

  
Charlie looked back up and shrugged. “I was passing by when I was downtown to see a movie. I just wanted to say hi, since we haven’t talked in forever. I didn’t mean to interrupt your guy’s dinner party,” she sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I should just leave.”

  
“No, no. Charlie…” Clay started, shaking his head. “You can stay, it’s fine. I just wasn’t expecting anyone to come over. I should have a word with Carlton.” With that he walked towards the kitchen.

  
Jessica turned back to Charlie, beaming, and sat down in a chair in the living room. She waited patiently for a couple of seconds, and Charlie followed her hesitantly and sat down across the couch across from her. 

  
“So, how’s the robotics course?” Jessica asked. 

  
“I dropped out,” Charlie muttered.

  
“What? Why?!” she exclaimed. “I thought you said you loved that course. You spent weeks perfecting those weird robot face things. And they were working so well! Kinda reminded me of those creepy toy owl things now that I think of it...”

  
"Yeah, they were kind of creepy." Charlie said with a shrug.

  
She stared up at the ceiling for a second, her eyes closed tight as she tried to visualize those plastic faces in front of her.

  
"Come to think of it, they were really creepy. They just kept trying to talk to me, babbling nonsense for hours while I was trying to pack. That's why I threw them out when I moved."  
"You used to be up at 3:00 AM, hunched over that desk and messing with circuits and bolts. Which was driving me crazy for weeks since you kept throwing a pillowcase over it whenever I tried to see what you were doing. I tried to clean your side and the minute I touched that sheet, you nearly tore my arm off trying to drag it away! You even dissected your old toys for parts! The toys your dad made! Why would you throw them away?" 

  
Charlie sighed. “I guess after… after that night… I couldn't stand to look at them anymore."

  
Charlie peered down at the floor, seemingly looking at something other than the polished oak boards covered in scratches and scuffs.

  
"When I was trapped in that room, all I could see were those faces. Those ugly, horrible little creatures that were built into that pizzeria would stare at me and laugh and point. Like they were sharing a joke about me I couldn't hear. At first I was scared by them, I thought they were going to try and rip me to sheds. And I wouldn't be able to stop them. I stared at them for hours and hours, waiting for an attack. But then I realized what they were. Just another way to mock me while I was held captive. They weren't watching me because they wanted to hurt me. They just thought it would be funny to watch."

  
Jessica slowly reached out a hand towards Charlie, but her friend batted it away as she continued to stare down at the floor, fidgeting with a piece of thread that had come lose from her skirt. 

  
"Those faces reminded me too much of them. Afton liked to use faceplates on his designs too, you know. I used them in the prototypes so I could access their hardware. He used them to make more room to store spring locks."

  
Speechless, Jessica turned away. She'd only been in that horrid building for maybe an hour. Charlie had been stuck for who knows how long. Whatever was in there, it was built with the purpose of warping your mind to make you an easier target. Charlie had been in hysterics when they'd finally caught up to her, hardly able to believe her friends were real.

  
"Charlie… just how long were you stuck down there?" Jessica asked. 

  
Charlie abruptly froze. The pieces of thread she'd unraveled from her skirt trembled in her hands.

  
"I-" Charlie started, turning back to meet Jessica's gaze.

  
For a second, Jessica saw something resembling fear in her expression. But not of whatever it was she was recalling. Something different. Someone different. 

  
Then it was gone. Charlie suddenly stood up, wiping her hands on her skirt, though she was not sweating.

  
"I don't remember. I wasn't exactly keeping track of time." Charlie said flatly. 

  
With that, she marched out of the room, ignoring Jessica's voice calling after her. Jessica darted into the next room after her, but it was too late. Charlie was talking to Carlton in the kitchen, the two of them laughing over some joke. They seemed happy.

  
_I shouldn't have brought it up. Of course she'd dodge a question like that, it wasn't the kind of thing you ask a person who's been through that hell._

  
She ducked her head behind the door, slowly closing it as quietly as she could. She walked towards the living room, ruffling through her purse in search of her cosmetics bag.   
_I just need to take a moment to collect my thoughts. Think up some new conversation topics. Be a good friend. _

  
She passed by Clay's office door, when she heard a grinding noise. It wasn't particularly loud, like a gentle whirring of motors and cogs. It was somewhat familiar, but she could not place where she had heard it before. She peaked her head in, and as the light from the hallway shined into the room, she saw it. 

  
The room was filled with boxes, some labelled, some not. It was messy, text filled papers scattered over the desk and the floor. But what caught her off guard was the little doll, delicately perched at the corner of the desk on top of a couple of boxes. 

  
It's head was tilted to the side, and it's limbs were motionless. But it was unmistakably the source of the sound. Jessica slowly walked into the room, careful to not break her gaze from the doll. She crouched down beside it, looking into it's dark eyes apprehensively.

  
"Hello there. Long time no see, huh?" She whispered, and reached out to grasp the doll. 

  
It continued it's garbled chain of nonsense in response, it's head bobbing slightly when she lifted it off the ground. The mechanical whirring suddenly stopped as she cradled it in her arms. It had been waiting for her. 

  
"What have you been up too, Ella?"

  
“You promise you’ll like them?” Charlie had said.

  
“Uh-huh!” Jessica had replied earnestly. Charlie had never let her see her room before. 

  
And so Charlie had swung open the door, revealing a pale pink room scattered with various toys and covered wall-to-wall with colorful decorations. It was a sight straight out of one of Jessica’s storybooks, a room filled with all the things a child could imagine suddenly brought into reality. But what really caught her attention was the small, purple plush rabbit sitting on a wicker chair.

  
“It’s Bonnie!” she had cried out, pointing excitedly. Charlie shook her head and smiled. 

  
“No, it’s Theodore,” she said. “See, he’s a lot more fluffy and you can hold him!” With that, she had scooped the rabbit out of its place on the chair and thrust it into Jessica’s arms.   
It was unlike anything she’d ever seen. There wasn’t a single seam out of place, the furry material firm but soft, the eyes lively and cheerful. This was a toy made with more care than anything she’d ever admired in a department store window. It was made with love. 

  
Suddenly, the rabbit’s arm lifted itself up and waved cheerfully at Jessica, eyes turned upward to stare into hers. 

  
“I love you, Charlie,” Theodore said softly. The voice from the speaker was Charlie’s father.

  
“Cool,” Jessica said, grinning as she turned the mechanical plush back over to Charlie. “How’d he do that?” 

  
Charlie shrugged. “I dunno. Dad’s just really good at building stuff,” she said simply, her gaze now focused on the unicorn at the side of her bed. 

  
“His name is Stanley,” she said matter-of-factly, patting the unicorn’s head. Jessica admired his multicolored mane and shining white coat, pushing him in circles around the track. To her surprise, he bobbed up and down like he was galloping across the room.

  
“Oh, and this is Ella!” Charlie said excitedly as she turned the wheel by her bedpost with a surprising amount of strength. One of the three closets creaked open and out soared a doll carrying a tea tray. 

  
Jessica leaned in closer to inspect, gazing down at the doll curiously. But as she stared into its eyes, her stomach turned. Whereas Theodore’s eyes had made him seem almost alive, it was still just a toy rabbit. Ella’s gaze was too focused, patient, too detailed with a mixture of browns, and filled with a sort of light that made her look… like she was awake. 

  
Jessica shrieked, stumbling backward as she tripped over her own dress in an effort to get away. In her haste, she whacked Ella on the side of her head, sending the doll toppling to the floor. 

  
She crawled back onto her feet, glancing back at Charlie. Her friend’s eyes were wet with tears. 

  
“If you didn’t like her, you should’ve just said so!” the little girl sobbed, picking up the doll and carefully setting her back on the chair before spinning the wheel and letting Ella sail back into her closet. Then she hopped onto her bed, wrapping her arms around her legs as she cried. 

  
Jessica bit the side of her lip, looking down at the floor in shame. 

  
“Charlie, I-I’m sorry,” Jessica said softly as she sat next to Charlie on the bed. “I think your toys are all really cool, promise.”   
  
Charlie glanced up, her cheeks red.   
  
“I mean it. They’re great, cause you have good taste,” Jessica stated. 

  
She waited a second, before jumping back down and grabbing Theodore from his wicker chair and dashing back to Charlie. With a firm poke to the rabbits belly, the toy tilted its head up at her friend and waved, repeating her father's message.

  
"I mean, just look at him! He knows your name and he talks to you. That's cooler than any game or toy I've played with."

  
Charlie buried her face in her knees, still sniffling a bit before she looked back up at Jessica. 

  
“Well,” Charlie sniffled. “Of course you like Theodore, you’re obsessed with Bonnie.”

  
“Am not!” Jessica said defensively.

  
“Are too! I bet you wanna kiss him and everything!” Charlie said with a grin, making a kissy face as she held the rabbit by its ear, inches away from her friends face.

  
“Gross! I so do not!” she yelled, playfully tossing a pillow at her. 

  
“Do too~!” Charlie said through her giggles as she caught it, and Jessica suddenly tackled her, before grabbing Theodore and running out of room cackling.

Charlie chased Jessica up and down the house, both of them taunting each other as Charlie fought to win back her stolen toy. Somehow, she’d managed to chase Jessica all the way up a tree before their parents noticed. It took them about an hour to coax Jessica and the plastic toy back down safely. Charlie had also managed to cut off a chunk of Jessica's left braid with a pair of safety scissors, which both parties were equally confused by.

  
Charlie hadn’t shown Ella to Jessica after that, and Jessica had never asked to see her. But she had been acutely aware of the doll’s presence like it was staring at her through the cracks of the closet door with those too-human eyes. Even when the door wasn’t open her presence was there, always smiling in the shadows. Eventually Jessica had stopped going into Charlie’s room entirely, and the backyard became their designated area. Her friend didn’t seem to care, and she always brought out the toys she wanted to play with anyway. Jessica had never needed to look at Ella again. 

  
Looking at the doll now, Jessica felt a shiver run down her spine and she set it down gently on the table and rushed back into the dining room with the others. As she slid the door shut behind her, the mechanical whirring began again, and this time she knew where she’d heard it.

It was the sound of a broken music box.


	3. Chapter Three

Carlton watched as Jessica slipped out of his dad's office, softly closing the door behind her. **  
**

It was odd, seeing her after so long. Even though it had only been a year or two since he saw her last, it was only a week or two. 

While Jessica had remained fundamentally the same, there were so many things she changed with her appearance. She had always been like this. 

The minute she'd been able to choose how to style herself, she'd completely thrown herself into it. In the few letters between those two years, she'd always attached pictures, and she didn't look the same in any of them. One year her hair had been bleached pure white, the next she'd fastened colorful extensions to her long locks, then a ink black pixie cut, and finally back to shoulder length dark brown curls.

Considering Jessica had worn stiff braids and fancy dresses for most of the time Carlton knew her, it had been an emotional rollercoaster to see those pictures. Though, he had no right to judge. 

He wouldn't deny that she had an eye for color coordination, elaborate hairstyles, and a surprisingly vast knowledge of fashion history. She’d gone on a long tangent trying to explain color theory to him in a response to one of his letters, which had made a good reference when he was painting sets in middle school.

Though for all her constant shifting between trends and interests, Jessica was surprisingly unchanged. She carried herself better now, but she was the same curious, extroverted, chaotic mess he'd known since Pre-K. 

So it had been rather frustrating when she'd straight up vanished, leaving him alone to carry the conversation. Not that he couldn't, but it was kind of awkward trying to single handedly carry a conversation when he hadn’t spoken to Charlie for a year, and even then most of it was about childhood interests they’d both outgrown. He didn’t even know what Charlie’s full name was. 

He'd been sitting on the couch talking to Charlie, both waiting for Jessica to re-enter so they could decide whether they were feeling like riffing on one of the thousands of old movies his dad owned or getting some dessert at the new diner nearby after dinner. Charlie voted for movies, Carlton voted dessert. 

A couple minutes had passed, and Jessica didn't show. He'd left his dad to continue the debate with Charlie, which likely would not score him points for either of them, and found Jessica hunched over a toy in his dad's study. 

Amazingly, she hadn't seemed to notice him at all the whole time he'd been standing next to door. She'd just been holding what looked like a doll up to her ear, listening for something. She was still listening for it with an ear pressed up against the door, like she wasn't ready to turn away.

"Hey," Carlton said, as he tapped her shoulder lightly. 

Jessica yelped, then immediately covered her mouth and looked around frantically before glaring back at him. 

"What the hell, Carlton!" she hissed.

"You ran off when I was talking to Charlie. Then you didn't come back. I assumed you were either snooping around or you got lost in the basement." 

"I….I just needed a break," Jessica said as she leaned back up against the wall. "Plus, I thought I heard something over here."

"A break from what? The judgmental gaze of a detective? Charlie's weird hatred of improper practical affects? My constant charm and charisma?"

Jessica shook her head and muttered, "It's just that… well I thought I'd be able to talk to her normally again." 

"Ah." 

Carlton hadn't fully understood the situation when he first heard about it.

At first it was that terrifying phone call he got in the middle of the night, his dad telling him that he'd lost Charlie, just like he lost Michael. For a long, agonizing hour, he’d stared at a picture of the six of them sitting in a ball pit. It was one of those pictures their parents made them take on one of their birthday parties as a big line up. Michael had been the only one standing normally as requested, as the rest of them had pulled a goofy face last minute. Charlie even managed to tackle Jessica backwards into the ball pit right as the camera flashed, blurring her face completely. But he could still see her smile. 

Then an hour later it was reestablished as a miraculous survival, and everyone was safe and sound. That there was no need to panic, that this time they found her. But this time he didn’t wait around. He booked the first plane to Salt Lake City the next morning, then driven all the way down to Hurricane. 

It had been almost 5:00 am by the time he got there, but it was only until he'd seen Charlie standing drowsily in the doorway of her and Jessica's apartment that he'd actually started to feel tired. 

He glanced at Jessica, who was staring off back into his dad's study again.

"Jess, I don't know what happened that night. But I do know that you, Charlie, John, and my dad all made it out alive. So why are you all acting like there's something still wrong?"

"That's the thing. You weren't there," Jessica said exasperatedly. "You weren't the one who ran a marathon and then found her in hysterics while in those caves, you didn't watch as some lunatic in a rabbit suit monologues about how he cheated death, you didn’t get almost get crushed by a goddamn building, _you didn't see her die_." 

Carlton crossed his arms over his chest as he raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? So what?"

"What?" 

"Charlie almost died in what was basically a springlock suit, right? Well, gee, I wonder who can relate to that? I remember what it was like, stuck in that dark room slowly inching my way towards a camera for a chance I might make it out. And we were lucky. I was lucky. Because those things were literal death traps. If it hadn't been for Charlie, I would've been crushed in that suit just like Mic-" 

Carlton felt his voice falter for a moment. 

"-Just like Dave, or William, or whatever name he went by. And I still get bad dreams about it, occasionally. So maybe, Charlie deserves a little slack for being convinced she was going to die until however long it took you to find her."

It was quiet for a minute or two, save for a strange whirring sound coming from inside the study. It was Jessica who softly spoke up first.

"I'm sorry we didn't come for you the minute we realized you weren't there."

"It's not about that-"

"-You must've been so alone."

_I wasn't. He was there with me. He was talking to me, like he used to. But he didn't talk about things like dinosaurs or bugs like he used too. He told me how it happened. He told me what his last moments were like._

"-It must've been terrifying, being so vulnerable."

_I wasn't afraid of Dave. He didn't care if I lived or died, I was just the bait, it didn't matter. I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared-_

"Carlton?" Jessica said, looking up at him, scanning his expression nervously.

He automatically straightened his posture and shrugged. "Yeah. Good thing I wasn't claustrophobic, right?" 

He laughed a little, but it didn't sound quite right. More of a wheeze than a laugh.

Jessica simply stared at him. 

"I think Charlie made it out better than I did, though," Carlton said. "Why did she get to have a makeover when all I got was a get well soon card?" 

Jessica rolled her eyes a little, and Carlton continued. 

"I mean I appreciate the thought, but the fact remains that all I got was sweaty and tired, while Charlie got to get a whole new wardrobe and a fancy haircut." 

Jessica thought to herself for a moment. "Well, you didn't ask us to take you out for a shopping spree, for starters," She retorted. 

"Can I still go on one? I think it's unfair that Charlie gets a makeover after a near death experience and I don't." 

He was slipping back into the retorts easier now. It was almost subconscious, though that may have just been his improv classes at work. 

Jessica seemed to think for a moment before closing her eyes. "Ah yes, I can see it. The best you. With a fancy new dress and some new combat boots to make you look taller. You'll be a knockout."

Carlton grinned. "Do I get a nice tan and some pretty new glasses to bring out the hazel in my eyes?"

Jessica snorted. "Charlie doesn't wear glasses, though maybe you need a pair."

"Har har. I know she got some in that makeover of yours."

She looked at him pointedly. "I wasn't the one who took her. And no, she doesn't wear glasses. She doesn't even wear contacts. Plus, Charlie's eyes are dark brown, dummy."

"Then why was she wearing glasses this evening, oh Detective Jess?" Carlton replied with a smirk. 

Jessica had unfolded her hands from across her chest. She studied his face carefully. 

"You're pulling my leg, right?" He said. 

_Wait, are Charlie's eyes dark brown? I’m not great at identifying colors but they seemed pretty light to me. But I don't know I never really paid attention, and kinda just assumed..._

"You said her eyes were hazel," Jessica whispered as her eyes flickered to the hallway.

"Yeah but I thought they were always… they were always sort of light like that since I never really noticed…" Carlton mumbled out loud, but his head was spinning.

_What did Charlie look like? He tried to picture her in his head a little better, but his head felt fuzzy and it was getting harder to think..._

Jessica grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the back door. "Carlton, we need t-"

Then the door came swinging open and crashing into the wall. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

_30 minutes earlier _

Today had been horrible. 

The man had an ongoing record of dreadful days, but this by far was one of the worst. His worst days were usually tied to a particular figure's grievances with his existence. Today was not an exception. 

He huffed as he struggled to shift the dead weight of the body to his other arm. As he trekked up the hill, he could hear the sound of metallic scraping behind him. It wasn't close. Yet. 

_Brilliant. _

"Y'know, would be fantastic if you could wake up around now," he muttered through gritted teeth, though he knew it was a waste of breath. 

The comatose body did not respond. It just continued to sag at his shoulders and slowly slink further and further away from his grasp every five seconds. As he crossed over the hill, the man noticed something. 

_Lights._

He'd made it to the main town. It was just across the field. Struggling to hold onto the body, he dropped it at his side, gasping for air. 

This was the time when he finally turned around. He immediately regretted that decision. 

Slowly lumbering towards him, was a large white and pink bear. It's features were split down the middle of it's head, which made the gleeful smile a little more off putting than it already was. It's limbs were segmented as well, sort of like a poseable artist mannequin. It had a tiny blue rabbit on it’s left arm instead of a hand, that reminded him vaguely of a sock puppet, though it certainly wasn’t made out of cloth or nearly as crudely made.

It's eyes landed on him, and an ecstatic laugh screeched through a speaker on its chest, and the plates shifted slightly as the bear continued to march towards them. It wasn’t moving very fast, but that didn’t matter. 

Swearing under his breath, the man struggled to grab the body again, dragging it down the clearing and towards the sweet, sweet, salvation of civilization. He wasn’t sure what the bear would do if he walked into a town with loads of people, but he hoped that maybe it might lose him, or maybe go back due to programming. Or maybe it would just keep following him and he’d have to explain to the police why a giant robot bear was chasing him. 

_"C-come o-out and p-play!"_ The bear screamed. 

The man was starting to feel the adrenaline wearing off. How long had it been? A minute, fifteen minutes, an hour? 

At that moment, the body on the ground stirred slightly. He heard what might’ve been a groan or an attempt at speech, and knelt down to it.

“Hey, can you hear me? Listen, you gotta get up, like, now.”

Attempting to pull them up, before dropping them again on the ground, the man lightly poked their face. Another series of muttering, and a slight finger twitch, but no real awareness to it. 

“_I se-ee you~_”

“Listen, we’re gonna die in a minute or two, so I’d really appreciate it if you could try and stand up!” He hissed at them. This time he pinched their forearm, and tried to hoist them onto their feet. 

Groggily, they put a foot out, then another. They wobbled a bit, but the man tried to hold them steady. 

“I know you’ve just woken up, but we’re kinda trying to outrun a metal bear here,” He said, as he tried to guide them down the hill a bit. 

They blinked their eyes open a bit, but it wasn’t by much. They also murmured what might’ve been “_Where?_” or “_Bear?_”, both of which were acceptable questions. 

“Just keep trying to walk, I’ll guide you-yeah, that’s it.” They managed to move a couple feet down the hill, skidding a bit against the rocks. The person he was carrying looked slightly up at him, continuing to try and mutter something to him. 

“_Our new-w friends are awfully slo-ow…_”

Determinedly, the man gripped their shoulder and part-guided and part-dragged them down the hill, and into the cornfield. 

The stalks scratched at his bare left arm, where the jacket had been torn off at the sleeve. At least it wasn't bleeding. That badly. 

With each step, he could feel his partner slowly starting to gain their own momentum, relying less upon him for pulling them and more for direction. 

But it wasn't fast enough. 

While it was never changing its speed, he and his half-conscious friend weren't exactly going fast. And the bear didn't need to worry about things like breathing, or corn stalks, or getting tired, or carrying a surprisingly heavy teenager. It just carved a path of destruction and kept walking. How close was it? 50 feet? 30 feet? 10 feet? Close enough that it would be able to grab them in a second or two, and then that would be it. 

But what happened to him wouldn't be all that bad, would it?

For once, he actually looked down at the person beside him. Met her in the eyes. He didn't know why she had been in that room, and he didn't care. Whatever she would have to face for being caught, it wasn’t going to be pretty. 

"Okay, here's the plan," He said. "When I say go, you run."

"_Not..a good...pl-_"

"Go."

Credit where it was due, she actually did manage to start moving at a faster pace, still leaning heavily on him, but at least starting to reach a normal walking speed. They might have actually been able to break into a full on run, had she been a little more awake and his arms been a little less tired. 

“_Bon-Bon, go ge-et em’!_”

Instead, they both tumbled to the ground as a blue streak burst out in front of them. 

The blue hand puppet, which originally had been motionless, giggled excitedly as it pushed itself off the ground, spider-like metal prongs helping it stand up, before retreating with a _click_ back into its body, plastic plates folding up to conceal them again and leaving a near invisible line.

The footsteps grew louder and louder, until they stopped, and a hand reached down to reattach the puppet, it’s shadow cast over its prey. 

\------------------------------------------------------------

_15 minutes earlier..._

A sudden jolt of pain shocked Charlie awake. 

She turned over onto her side, to look down at her knees, which were covered in dirt and blood. It stung, but she’d live. A groan came from her left, and she turned to see a young man clenching his hand to his chest, and who had an awfully nasty cut on his left arm. 

He looked back at Charlie, and his face lit up, as he stumbled to his feet and waved towards her with his good arm. “Come on, we got-”

His voice cut off as his good arm was grabbed by a mechanical white hand that pulled him back sharply. Charlie cried out in surprise, and looked up to see a blue-eyed bear with a permanent grin on its face, a face split into six pieces and with rosy pink cheeks. It looked nothing like him, but the style or maybe it was the animal type just caused her to mutter-

“Freddy?” 

It’s faceplates shifted in place, and an ear-splitting laugh erupted from the speaker on its chest. Both Charlie and the struggling man flinched at it. “_Why H-hello there, f-friend!”_. 

Charlie pushed herself onto her feet as she backed away, wincing at the sting from her hands against the dirt. The bear stepped towards her, dragging along the man by the arm. It looked painful. 

She took another step back, preparing to run, when she heard a yelp, the bear’s blue eyes fixated on her as it twisted it’s hold on it’s other prey’s arm, and she froze in place. 

“What do you want?” She whispered. 

Freddy just tilted his head to the side, and stepped forward. _“Y-you’ll miss t-the party. C-come on out!” _

_Are the voice lines prerecorded?_ Charlie wondered to herself for a moment. If they were, there was no point in talking. She looked over her shoulder a second, and through the waves of corn, she saw a glimmer of light. _A lamppost?_ She looked back and the bear was only a few feet away from her. 

“Run,” she heard the man hiss at her, but she didn’t have time to process his words before he was thrown to the side, and the bear reached out to grab her. It knocked the wind out of her, grabbing her by the waist and tugging her towards it. It’s torso snapped open, revealing a cavity inside. 

_No. Nonononono. Not again. _The memory of the other Freddy fueled her with enough strength to try and force it’s hand off her, digging her heels into the dirt and leaning away. It didn’t quite work, but it kept her from moving any closer to it.

There was a clicking sound, and a flash of blue caught her eye as the previously motionless hand puppet crawled onto the ground and reached out one of it’s metal prongs to stab at her foot. 

Charlie yelped in pain, tried to kick at it, and was dragged closer to the animatronic. She pried at the arm clutching her waist, to no avail. There was a whirr and some sort of mist was released, though all it did was cloud her vision and make her cough a bit.

_“Y-you gonna miss the p-party!”_ Roared the speaker on the bear's chest. 

“Let go of me!” Charlie hissed, and kicked at it desperately. She glanced over her shoulder to see the man struggling to stand up, only to fall back over as he clutched his leg. She was all alone.

A horrible sinking feeling in her chest arose, and she could almost feel the metal walls caving in as metal pierced her skin, a terrible crunching noise that took her a moment to register as her bones, a second of agony, and then… nothing. She hadn’t been able to get away fast enough, her, Jessica, Clay, and John combined couldn’t manage to pull her away. 

So why had she felt, as she had laid there dying, not just fear and pain, that she had been holding back? Even when she was at the peak of danger, there was just a subtle voice in the back of her head that wouldn’t let her just... try. It was still there but it was almost quieter now, flickering in and out like a bad signal. A suggestion, not a command. 

Charlie gritted her teeth, tightened her grip on the animatronics arm, and she _pulled._

A grinding noise of metal on metal, steel joints being pulled loose from it’s socket as it was contorted in a way never meant to be, filled her ears. Both the bear and the rabbit suddenly stopped in their tracks. Sparks flew up from where the wires met and short-circuited, and Charlie jumped back. Neither animatronics seemed to notice her, and she saw the source of that in it’s exposed metal shoulder, where the plastic shell had torn. When Charlie looked down there, in her hand, was Freddy’s white and pink arm. 

It felt real, but it didn’t seem possible. Head spinning, Charlie backed away, letting the animatronics’ arm clunk against the dirt ground. She looked back into Freddy’s blue eyes, and saw herself reflected in them. Her vision felt blurry, her arm suddenly ached, and Charlie felt something stronger than the fear or adrenaline. _Failure._

Even when the lights flickered back on into its eyes, and the puppet darted forward to grab it’s arm, and it slowly began to rise back up as electricity surged back on, she did not move. _This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were never supposed t-_

“What are you waiting for?!” A voice yelled behind her, and the young man who’d been carrying her, now managing to stand despite the considerable scuff on his knee, reached out to grab her hand. 

“We’re almost there, c’mon, we’re so close!” He said, tugging her towards the light of town. She turned her head to look at his face, and studied it. He looked exasperated, angry, and most of all, afraid. But there was something familiar about him. She could’ve sworn she knew him. 

He reached out and shook her by the shoulders. “Look! Mate! Whatever you’re thinking about, can it wait for, I don’t know, _some time when we aren’t ‘bout to die?!_”

The soft hiss of steam and sudden whirring noise caught her attention, and she tilted her head slightly to see the animatronics face split into pieces, revealing an endoskeleton underneath. It’s chest cavity was still open, though wider now, as the Bonnie puppet slowly tugged it’s arm back towards its body. _Is it… performing maintenance?_

A chill went through her spine at the sight of it’s plastic face split open, the memory of that awful death trap turning it’s eyes back to look at her as she was trapped inside it’s chest cavity struggling to breathe, h_eart beating fast, spring locks pressing against her back-_

“-are if you’re scared! You have to r-”

Charlie’s gaze snapped back to the man, as she grabbed his hand and ran, bolting deeper into the cornfield, towards the streetlights and leaving the animatronic alone in the shadows. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live.


End file.
